"Er—what are you?" put in Belvane kindly, knowing how men are always glad to talk about themselves.
Udo had caught sight of a well-covered table, and was looking at it with a curious mixture of hope and resignation.
"Very, very hungry," he said, speaking with the air of one who knows.
The Princess, whose mind had been travelling, woke up suddenly.
"Oh, I was forgetting my manners," she said with a smile for which the greediest would have forgiven her. "Let us sit down and refresh ourselves. May I present to your Royal Highness the Countess Belvane."
"Do I shake hands or pat him?" murmured that mistress of Court etiquette, for once at a loss.
Udo placed a paw over his heart and bowed profoundly.
"Charmed," he said gallantly, and coming from a cross between a lion, a rabbit, and a woolly lamb the merest suggestion of gallantry has a most pleasing effect.
They grouped themselves round the repast.
"A little sherbet, your Royal Highness?" said Hyacinth, who presided over the bowl.